Congratulations Champs!

There were 2 types of fans at this mornings district championship game: those that sat on the edge of their seats and those that paced back and forth along the pavement. What they both witnessed was a well pitched defensive gem of a game between Westfield White (WW) and South Orange - Maplewood (SOM). In the end, WW squeaked out a 2-1 victory in a game that saw a dramatic sixth inning homerun force extra innings.

Chris Rinaldi took the mound for WW today and pitched 4 shutout innings allowing just 3 hits. The WW defense was sharp from the get go and frustrated the SOM hitters by killing rally after rally. In the first inning with 1 man on and 2 outs, shortstop Nick Mele made a nice stab of a one hopper to force the runner at second. In the second inning with the bases loaded and 2 outs, second baseman Eric Varakian snagged a hard hit grounder to end the inning. In the third inning, Mele and Varakian worked together to get out of a 2 on , 2 out jam as a sharp grounder was fielded by the second baseman and tossed to the shortstop covering 2nd. DEFENSE was the name of the game today.

Westfield was able to scrape together a run in their half of the fourth by using some heads up base running. After Chris Boutsikaris and Devin Anderson singled, Tommy Summers put the ball in play. His speed down the line must have rattled the infielder who ended up throwing wild to first. Chris Bouts scored from second on the throw and got Westfield on the board with a run. That's all they were able to get, so with the score 1-0 Westfield went back out into the field to let their pitching and defense get back to work.

Nick Mele came in for WW to pitch the fifth inning and got right to work. With a man on 2nd and 1 out, fans were treated to a "strike em out throw em out" double play. (What number is that in Coach Rinaldi's playbook?) Mele threw a swinging strike three to the SOM batter and catcher Vin Difilippo thew a bullet to third baseman Devin Anderson who tagged the runner trying to steal. Way to go boys!

Westfield held on to the 1-0 lead going into the sixth inning. They recorded a quick out on a routine grounder to Bouts at first base. Next came something that no one expected ... a shot off the bat of SOM player Harvey that carried over the right centerfield fence and clanked off the scoreboard. It was a game tying homerun. What would Westfield do now ... stay focused or lose control of things ??? Well the boys made Coach Rinaldi proud (as well as us moms and dads) as they buckled down and closed out the inning. Pitcher Mele fielded a slow roller back to mound for out #2 and after a walk to next batter, catcher Difilippo mowed down his second base runner of the day as he tried to steal second.

With the score tied at 1, Westfield came to bat in the bottom of the sixth but was unable to get anything going. Mele came back out to pitch the top of the seventh and kept SOM scoreless as well.

In the bottom of the seventh with 2 outs, Vin Difilippo got on base with a double. Nick Mele followed with a fly ball to short centerfield that neither the second baseman nor the centerfielder could handle. As it tipped off the glove of the fielder, Difilippo came around to score the winning run. Westfield wins it in extra innings by the score of 2-1.

The team will move on to the state tournament which will be hosted by Mt. Olive. Details to follow.